Hockey's back: What you need to know about the NHL's return to play

Excitement has been building for months about the potential return of NHL hockey this summer.

On Friday night, the resumption of the 2019-20 season became even closer to a reality.

While the League announced its intention to begin a 24-team postseason bracket, including a first-of-its-kind qualifying round that will feature the Wild and Canucks, any return to play still needed to be officially agreed upon by both the NHL Players Association and the League's Board of Governors.

That approval is finally official.

Each group voted -- and passed -- the NHL's Return to Play plan, with Phase 3 training camps officially beginning on Monday and a return of game action (Phase 4) from two host cities commencing Aug. 1.

Minnesota will play Vancouver in Game 1 of its best-of-5 game qualifying round series on Aug. 2.

The 12 Western Conference teams will head to Edmonton's Rogers Place and the dozen teams from the Eastern Conference will be in Toronto and play at Scotiabank Arena.

In addition to this summer's Return to Play, the NHL and the NHLPA agreed to terms on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement which will provide for at least four years of labor peace between the sides, addressing any number of issues that will come up as the League climbs out from COVID-19 measures that promise to shake up the NHL's financial outlook, at least in the short term.

In the meantime, the goal now is to get players, coaches and staff to their respective cities healthy and ready to resume play in just a couple of weeks.

Most members of the Wild are already back in the Twin Cities and have been taking part in Phase 2 training at TRIA Rink. But the Wild's quest for a Stanley Cup Playoff return will begin on Monday with full team workouts and on-ice practices.

UPDATE: The Wild announced the roster that will be at Training Camp presented by Toyota, on Saturday.

What is known is when the Wild will begin that quest. All games will take place at Rogers Place in Edmonton, with Vancouver serving as the "home" club for Games 1 and 2 on Aug. 2 and 4.

Minnesota will serve as the "home" team for Game 3 and Game 4 (if necessary) on Aug. 6 and 7, while the Canucks would be the "home" team for a potential Game 5, which would be played on Aug. 9.

All Wild games can be heard on flagship radio station KFAN 100.3 FM. The team's local television broadcast schedule on FOX Sports North will be announced at a later date.

Other return to play highlights, via the NHL:

Games have been scheduled on a staggered basis, providing hours of continuous action. The start times for the 10 days of Stanley Cup Qualifiers in Toronto (Eastern Conference games) will be: Noon, 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. ET. In order to maximize the viewing experience for fans across North America, the start times for the three game windows in Edmonton (Western Conference games) - 2 p.m. ET, 6:30 p.m. ET and 10:30 p.m. ET - may fluctuate by up to 30 minutes during the qualifying round.

The Stanley Cup Qualifiers featuring the 16 teams that are contesting best-of-five series to determine the eight teams advancing to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, commonly referred to as the qualifying round, will begin on Saturday, Aug. 1, with five games: three in Toronto (Carolina vs. NY Rangers, Florida vs. NY Islanders and Montreal vs. Pittsburgh) and two in Edmonton (Chicago vs. Edmonton, Calgary vs. Winnipeg).

The Stanley Cup Qualifiers featuring the top four teams from each conference to determine seeding in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, commonly referred to as the round robin, will begin on Sunday, Aug. 2, with two games, one in each hub city: Boston vs. Philadelphia (at Toronto) and Colorado vs. St. Louis (at Edmonton).

Broadcast Information

A complete broadcast schedule will be released in the coming days.

Statistics

For statistical purposes only, all games from the 2020 Stanley Cup Qualifiers (round robin and qualifying rounds) are considered part of the 2020 postseason. Accordingly, all skater/goalie/team statistics accumulated in these games will be included in the 2020 player and team postseason stats. Achievements from these games and series will be included on Records.NHL.com. Teams participating in a best-of-five series during the Stanley Cup Qualifiers are considered to have made the postseason and participated in a postseason series.

NHL Draft Lottery Phase 2, NHL Draft

Phase 2 of the NHL Draft Lottery will take place between the Stanley Cup Qualifiers and the start of the First Round on Aug. 10. Phase 2 will assign the first overall pick for the 2020 NHL Draft to one of the eight qualifying round teams that fail to advance.
The 2020 NHL Draft is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 9 and 10.